SON CHARGED WITH MURDERING PARENTS
IN FAMILY HOME

Tuesday, September 13, 2011
—Bond was denied for a south suburban high school student charged with murdering his parents, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced Tuesday.

John Granat, 17, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. After the bond hearing Tuesday, he was transferred to the Cook County Jail, where he will be held while awaiting trial.

It was Granat who made the 911 call from his family home in the 12700 block of 81st Court in unincorporated Palos Township on Sunday morning, alerting police that his parents were dead. He said he awoke at 7 a.m. and found his family home disheveled. That’s when he went upstairs and found his parents. He said he ran from the home and immediately called 911.

Investigators found no signs of forced entry to the home and Granat told investigators he fell asleep in the basement of the home around 12:30 a.m. and was in the home the entire night. But the investigation revealed that Palos Heights Police had stopped Granat for a minor traffic offense at 5:17 a.m. at 122nd Street and Harlem Avenue. That led to the first of what would be several conflicting stories Granat gave investigators about his activities in the hours before he called 911.

He finally told investigators a friend had been in need of money and, while Granat was out of the home, he gave the friend permission to enter. Granat said he fell asleep in his car and didn’t enter the family home until 7 a.m., when he found his parents dead. But investigators interviewed several friends of Granat’s and learned he had previously made multiple threats to kill his parents.